3 things I learnt from taking a break on YouTube

How it started

I recently took an unplanned break from YouTube. When I say unplanned, I literally mean I wasn’t planning to take a break and suddenly found myself taking it!

It started with:

“Oh I’ll just skip this week and make a video next week”...

Which then became...

“Ok so I’ve missed two weeks. I can come back strong next week, the analytics still says I’m growing, so I should be fine”

It got to my fourth week and I just thought:

“What kind of YouTuber am I if I can’t even make a video on a weekly basis?!”

The longer it took me to make my next video, the harder it actually got to sit down and make a video.

At one point I didn’t even want to look at my YouTube Analytics page because I didn’t want to see the sea of red in my statistics from not posting and seeing less and less people interacting with my content.

Setting up the camera, getting the lighting right. Remembering how to talk and pace myself to make the editing easier. It all went out the window the longer it took me to make the next video.

But as of mid March - I’ve put out 2 videos over the last 2 weeks and I’m looking to take it up to publishing 2 videos a week over the next month or so. I’ve also just finished recording 2 videos and am looking to get them edited over the next few days.

Reflecting on my accidental break - here are my 3 takeaways:

Outsource the things you genuinely don’t enjoy

Even though I enjoy making videos, I genuinely hate the process of editing a video. Or more accurately, I hate the thought of having to sit down for 6-8 hours to edit a video.

I’m not like the legendary Casey Neistat, who says the edit is where you make the story:

I think my videos are more informational without as much of a storey arc. So editing is about what I should cut out to keep it as short and sharp as possible, rather than how to weave it into a story.

To help with this I recently brought on an editor to take the load off me. It really does feel amazing being able to record a video and then just send it off to an editor knowing it’ll get worked on while you do something else (like your Full Time job haha!). Yes it’s a cost, but hopefully as the channel grows, I should still come out ahead.

Setup a ritual/routine/checklist to get going

Sometimes the thought of recording a video can feel daunting. Because I live in a small bedroom (where I WFH, sleep and record my videos), I literally have to setup every time I want to record a video. It’s quite overwhelming all the things I have to work through just to record a video. I was chatting about this with another YouTuber, Cams Campbell, and suggested the value of having a routine/ritual.

I now have 10 things I need to work through before I hit record. It takes the mental load off all the things I have to think about and forces me to just think about the next little thing, (clean desk, check mic, check lighting, etc). As I work through each thing I inevitably get to the point where all I have to do is hit “record” and I’m good to go. As soon as I say “Hey friends welcome back to the channel” I’m fine…its just getting to that point that’s a struggle.

Batching jobs

Because my recording setup is very temporary, I’ve definitely found the value of batch recording my videos. I need to have 2-3 scripts ready to record and then smash them out in one recording session. I find my voice can do about 3 videos and then starts to get very rough and coughy. I do find once I get into a recording session I can smash them out. It’s just the friction of getting everything setup to start recording that’s the challenge.

With these small tweaks included in my workflow, I’m hoping I can make my way back to at least weekly videos, and then growing to 2 videos a week. Let’s check back in a few months!

What do you do to get yourself out of a slump?